Westbrook is a nut, but they have a great mix to deal with it. Everyone else is so even keeled, so it works for them. You need someone with a little fire to keep everyone on their toes.

I love Westbrook's fire. He just needs to learn to harness it better. At one time I thought this team might be a little to nice to win in the playoffs. Durant will never win a fight but he has developed a mean streak in a basketball sense himself.

He could have been right too, but regardless he needs to calm down in situations like that.

I'm not sure it matters. Martin was open in the lane; give him the ball (either there or out at the 3-point line) and you won't get a five second call.

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I think they can be mid tier....in the East. Ross and Jonas clearly have upside and are very young. Sure, there's some question on what they will become, but good young talent. Gay and DeRozan are overpaid and not particularly efficient, but they aren't terrible players if you take the money out of the equation. Now, Landry Fields? Ummmm. Lowry can ball, but he has warts. Amir has been pretty solid when he's able to stay on the floor (foul magnet). Bargs is gone by the trade deadline I'd think, so he's not (or, shouldn't be) part of the discussion.

To be mid-tier, you need to have better core players than that. Brooklyn has Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, and Joe Johnson, Indiana has Danny Granger, David West, and Paul George, and Atlanta has Al Horford and Josh Smith. The Raptors have....Kyle Lowry. What else is there? An inefficient shot jacker in Rudy Gay? A player who can't score efficiently, pass, or defend in DeRozan? A backup PF in Amir Johnson that can't stay on the floor?

For the Raptors to be any good at all, you're basically banking on two complete unknowns (Ross and Jonas) becoming good for this team to become any good. It's just not a good bet at all. The Raptors didn't have the current talent/asset base for such a trade to make any sense for them.

And BTW, I'll believe Colangelo trades Bargnani away when he actually does it. Who the hell would want him?

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I agree about the vision of the GM though. He's put them in NBA hell. Not good enough to do anything note-worthy, but capped out with no flexibility for the next 2-4 years.

Scott ***** of the NBA (they both screwed their franchises up by their devotion to shitty players; Cassel and Bargnani), but given three years longer to play with his toy.

To be mid-tier, you need to have better core players than that. Brooklyn has Deron Williams, Brook Lopez, and Joe Johnson, Indiana has Danny Granger, David West, and Paul George, and Atlanta has Al Horford and Josh Smith. The Raptors have....Kyle Lowry. What else is there? An inefficient shot jacker in Rudy Gay? A player who can't score efficiently, pass, or defend in DeRozan? A backup PF in Amir Johnson that can't stay on the floor?

For the Raptors to be any good at all, you're basically banking on two complete unknowns (Ross and Jonas) becoming good for this team to become any good. It's just not a good bet at all. The Raptors didn't have the current talent/asset base for such a trade to make any sense for them.

And BTW, I'll believe Colangelo trades Bargnani away when he actually does it. Who the hell would want him?

Scott ***** of the NBA (they both screwed their franchises up by their devotion to shitty players; Cassel and Bargnani), but given three years longer to play with his toy.

To be fair, Hawks won't have Josh Smith most likely next season. So, East is Heat/Bulls/Pacers/Nets probably next season. Maybe the Knicks, and the Celts probably fall by the wayside. So yeah, Raptors probably mid tier in the East. Not mid-tier playoff team, but mid-tier in the entire conference. Believe me, I'm not defending Colangelo. He's royally screwed things up. But I do think Toronto fights for a playoff spot next season, with an swift first round exit and still not hope to move up in the pecking order.

To be fair, Hawks won't have Josh Smith most likely next season. So, East is Heat/Bulls/Pacers/Nets probably next season. Maybe the Knicks, and the Celts probably fall by the wayside. So yeah, Raptors probably mid tier in the East. Not mid-tier playoff team, but mid-tier in the entire conference. Believe me, I'm not defending Colangelo. He's royally screwed things up. But I do think Toronto fights for a playoff spot next season, with an swift first round exit and still not hope to move up in the pecking order.

Sounds like a promising future. Maybe they'll do better than the last time he made a big splash for no reason and overpaid Hedo Turkoglu (when they came 9th with a far better core that included Chris Bosh).

I can always count on this when I watch the Thunder... I'm watching a Thunder game and KD is hot and Westbrook gets that look like, "waaahhhhh, I wanna shoot the ball big brother!!!" and makes a dumbass decision throwing up a stupid shot. I've seen that on more than one occasion and KD gives him a look back down the court like," WTF were you doing there? I'm on fire!" There was this one play last week where KD was wide open for three and Westbrook just drove it in the paint, threw up a crazy shot and the Lakers scored on the fast break. Dude needs to grow up.

I can always count on this when I watch the Thunder... I'm watching a Thunder game and KD is hot and Westbrook gets that look like, "waaahhhhh, I wanna shoot the ball big brother!!!" and makes a dumbass decision throwing up a stupid shot. I've seen that on more than one occasion and KD gives him a look back down the court like," WTF were you doing there? I'm on fire!" There was this one play last week where KD was wide open for three and Westbrook just drove it in the paint, threw up a crazy shot and the Lakers scored on the fast break. Dude needs to grow up.

I love westbrook for his holy shit athleticism, but much more so because he's the bad guy in a team full of extra public relations friendly goody two shoes. Not really their fault, they've just been built up by ESPN that way. Unless they stop being the 2nd team in the league all of a sudden (heat), I think Westbrook should keep playing with that crazy. Durant and the rest of the thunder wilted near the end of the finals, Westbrook was the one that said, nope, we're not losing, in game 4, I think. He made one really bad decision at the end of the game and everybody forgot how fantastic his game was up until that point.

Sounds like a promising future. Maybe they'll do better than the last time he made a big splash for no reason and overpaid Hedo Turkoglu (when they came 9th with a far better core that included Chris Bosh).

They really need to stop punishing teams for trying hard to win and not just tanking. I was glad charlotte didn't get the #1 overall, their FO was clearly in tank mode pretty much the entire season.

Kyrie Irving was ****ing unbelievable tonight. I have liked this team, and they are finally coming together. Speights was great as well. They balled their asses off in the 4th quarter and deserved the win. Very impressive performance.